French industrial output grows above expectations in September, Italian output disappoints

France’s industrial production data for the month of September came in a bit stronger than expected following the releases of the German and Spanish industrial production data earlier this week. The German and Spanish data were on the soft side with the former recording a drop of 1.6 percent in output sequentially, while the later registering only a rise of 0.1 percent. French industrial output rose 0.6 percent sequentially and 3.2 percent year-on-year, the second highest level since the end of 2015.

For the third quarter as a whole, the industrial output grew 0.6 percent sequentially, a slower rate as compared to the more than 1 percent recorded in the second quarter. However, it is still widely consistent with the three month-on-three month average pace in the past 12 months. On the contrary, the equivalent Italian figures, which were also released today, disappointed. The industrial output dropped 1.3 percent sequentially in September, fully reversing the rise seen in August. On a year-on-year basis, the output rose just 2.4 percent year-on-year, a slowdown from 5.8 percent year-on-year.

But, the quarterly rate painted a different scenario, with output growth rising further to 1.5 percent sequentially after the strong 1.2 percent quarter-on-quarter rate registered previously. While the data from major member states are hinting a decline in the euro area industrial production growth in September, this seems to be at least partially because of monthly volatility, stated Daiwa Capital Markets.

At 20:00 GMT the FxWirePro's Hourly Strength Index of Euro was highly bullish at 125.45, while the FxWirePro's Hourly Strength Index of US Dollar was neutral at -40.4657. For more details on FxWirePro's Currency Strength Index, visit http://www.fxwirepro.com/currencyindex

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